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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoLynsey Addario | The New York TimesYazidi families sit around a fire at a refugee camp near the northernmost border of Syria. Islamic State fighters executed a group of Yazidi men yesterday in Kocho before abducting their women and children.

IRBIL, Iraq — Islamic extremists shot scores of Yazidi men to death in Iraq, lining them up in
small groups and opening fire with assault rifles before abducting their wives and children,
according to an eyewitness, government officials and people who live in the area.

A Yazidi lawmaker cited the mass killing in Kocho as proof yesterday that his people are still
at risk after a week of U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes on the militants.

Meanwhile, warplanes targeted insurgents near a large dam that was captured by the Islamic State
this month, nearby residents said.

In a statement, U.S. Central Command said the airstrikes yesterday were launched under the
authority to support humanitarian efforts in Iraq, as well as to protect U.S. personnel and
facilities.

Central Command said the nine airstrikes conducted so far had destroyed or damaged four armored
personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees and an armored vehicle.

The U.S. began airstrikes against the Islamic State a week ago, in part to prevent the massacre
of tens of thousands of Yazidis in northern Iraq. They had fled the militants by climbing a
mountain and became stranded. Most were eventually able to escape with help from Kurdish
fighters.

Islamic State fighters had surrounded the nearby village

12 days ago and demanded that Yazidi residents convert or die. On Friday afternoon, they moved
in.

The militants told people to gather in a school, promising they would be allowed to leave Kocho
after their details were recorded, said the eyewitness and the brother of the Kocho mayor, Nayef
Jassem, who said he obtained his details from another witness.

The militants separated the men from children younger than 12 years old and the women. They took
men and male teens away in groups and shot them at the edge of the village, according to the
wounded man who escaped by feigning death.

The fighters then walked among the bodies, finishing off anyone who appeared to still be alive,
the 42-year-old man said by phone. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

“They thought we were dead, and when they went away, we ran away,” he said.

A Yazidi lawmaker, a Kurdish security official and an Iraqi official from the nearby city of
Sinjar gave similar accounts, saying Islamic State fighters had massacred many Yazidi men on Friday
after seizing Kocho.

All of them said they based their information on the accounts of survivors. Their accounts
matched those of two other Yazidi men, Qassim Hussein and Nayef Jassem, who said they spoke to
other survivors.

It was not clear how many men were killed. Iraqi and Kurdish officials said at least 80 men were
shot. Yazidi residents said they believed the number was higher, because there were at least 175
families in Kocho, and few were able to escape before the militants arrived.

Elsewhere in northern Iraq, residents near the Mosul Dam said the area was being targeted by
airstrikes.

The extremist group seized the dam on the Tigris River on Aug. 7. Residents living near the dam,
which is Iraq’s largest, say the airstrikes killed militants, but that could not immediately be
confirmed. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.